Evolve Technology Announces $5 Million Investment in New Immerse Brand and Expanded Evolve Academy Training

Evolve Technology has reinforced its commitment to its new Immerse business segment with a $5 million investment in LED displays and related technologies specifically engineered for the film and television markets.

Launched earlier this fall, Immerse offers turnkey xR stage solutions for augmented and extended reality, LED and projection technologies, and interactive tools for customers seeking immersive solutions for their productions. The capital investment will enable Evolves Immerse division to focus on film and television as that space increasingly moves to virtual production workflows.

"The film and television markets are dynamically changing and implementing technology we know well from the live events world," says Evolve CEO Tyler Mayne. "We will be taking the business model that has worked so successfully for us in the rental and staging markets and applying it to film and television as their demand grows for xR stages and virtual production studios."

At the same time, Mayne emphasizes, Evolve will continue to serve its large base of rental and staging customers by offering expanded Evolve Academy online training. The sessions are designed to help them acquire new skillsets so they can pivot to film and television as production transitions to virtual workflows during the coronavirus pandemic and into the future.

The $5 million equipment investment in Immerse will be dedicated to LED display technologies, camera tracking systems, media servers and other ancillary gear.

"Virtual production was going to happen in the next three to four years; because of COVID-19 that timeline has been compressed into a period of months," notes Mayne. "Immerse wants to take the confusion out of this fast transition by offering complete solutions to the market. Ultimately, Immerse will help devise a standard and a workflow for virtual production that others can follow."

Evolve Solutions manger Kevin Ring points out that, "the equipment investment will focus on products engineered for film and television needs, products designed to make shows look great on camera. Immerse will consult with customers to make sure the inventory grows with the gear they want."

Concurrent with developments at Immerse, Evolve Academy will continue to offer "the tools that industry professionals need to make the shift to a new market," says Mayne. "We're well known for our training: Evolve Academy provides the best in education series, lectures, and product demos to enhance expertise, and we made all of our online classes free for some time during COVID-19 lockdowns.

"We already have classes that focus on the immersive market and will announce more soon -- from very targeted product-based training to virtual production workflows. We are solidifying our relationships with manufacturers of products for this market and bringing a number of new manufacturing partners on board to focus on retraining for all things immersive."